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Colby vs Coline

American parents have registered 58,155 Colbys since 1880, against 79 Colines. Colby is still ahead, with 515 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Colby against Coline, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Colby Coline

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 113 years in which either name was published, Colby for 110 years and Coline for 3 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Colby Coline
Total US births 58,15579
Most in one year 3,9798
Babies in 2025 515under 5
Estimated living today 56,00015
Median age today 2474
Peak year 20011914
Best rank 99th boys2,638th girls
Rank in 2025 615thunranked
First recorded 18881914
Girls / boys 4,184 / 53,97179 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Colines alive today are over 74; half the Colbys are over 24. That is 50 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Colby and Coline.